On Sunday night, the MTV Video Music Awards staged a tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, with the young British rocker type Yungblud joining Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry and Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt to perform a medley of Osbourne’s songs. Lots of people wasn’t into it. One of those people was the Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins. In an Instagram post that went viral, Hawkins called the performers and possibly the audience and network executives “a bunch of bellends.” Now, Hawkins’ brother and bandmate Justin, lead singer for the Darkness, has put together a YouTube video explaining why people might thing that Yungblud specifically is a bit of a bellend — or, as he terms it, a “poser.”

Sudan Archives is gearing up for the release of The BPM next month. So far she’s released an enthralling batch of singles including “DEAD,” “MY TYPE,” “YEA YEA YEA,” and “MS. PAC-MAN.” Now, she’s back with “COME AND FIND YOU.”

Oh man, “Yellow,” remember that? Chris Martin running down the beach talking about “look at the stars, look how they shine for you”? Coldplay have certainly had some cheesy moments over the years. You might even argue that “Yellow,” the band’s 2000 breakout hit, was a cheesy moment in itself. I loved it, though. Wisp doesn’t remember any of that because the young shoegaze phenom wasn’t born when “Yellow” came out, but she just covered the song anyway.

When Sabrina Carpenter made her Coachella debut in 2024 — on the same day she released “Espresso” — she was still doing her location-specific “Nonsense” outros. During her late-afternoon main stage set, she sang: “He’s drinkin’ my bath water like it’s red wine/ Coachella, see you back here when I headline!” I guess manifestation works or whatever, because Carpenter, along with Colombian reggaeton-pop star Karol G, are reportedly headlining Coachella 2026.

Lately Chris Baio (Vampire Weekend, Baio) and Mike Greene (Fort Romeau), the duo known as C.Y.M., has emerged from a half-decade of dormancy and begun releasing new singles. They started with a pair of electronic instrumentals, then gave us a Cherry Glazerr collab. All of those songs will be on C.Y.M.’s self-titled debut album, newly announced today for release next month.

Four years ago, Armand Hammer, the consistently great duo of New York rappers ELUCID and billy woods, joined forces with veteran rap producer the Alchemist on the truly staggering album Haram. That felt like a huge moment of recognition for Armand Hammer, and it was the Alchemist meeting them on their own turf, giving them warped, feverish instrumentals and fitting right in with the group’s established canon. Now, Armand Hammer and the Alchemist are running it back.

Swaggering, super-diesel Sydney stompers Speed were one of the most exciting bands on the hardcore underground for years before they released their full-length debut Only One Mode last year, and that hasn’t changed one bit. Next week, Speed will join fellow hardcore giants Turnstile on that band’s massive North American tour. Speed and Jane Remover will open every show, with Blood Orange, Mannequin Pussy, and Amyl And The Sniffers joining in a rotating direct-support spot. I can’t wait. It’s going to be fucking massive. I hope Speed’s Jem Siow plays flute during the Turnstile set. Around the time that tour finishes up, Speed will drop a brand-new EP on our fucking asses.

In 2023, Home Front released their full-length debut Games Of Power, which earned them a spot on our revered Best New Bands list of that year. Today, the Edmonton post-punks are announcing its followup Watch It Die and sharing the anthemic lead single “Light Sleeper.”

When we last checked in on Brooklyn trombonist Kalia Vandever two years ago, she was releasing We Fell In Turn, a stretched-out solo jazz exploration that I described at the time as “basically ambient music.” Her new album goes in a quite different direction.